“BREAD ENOUGH AND TO SPARE” – Charles Spurgeon
“Bread Enough and to Spare”
“And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father’s have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!” – Luke 15:17.
The Prodigal Came to Himself
The phrase “He came to himself” may be understood as one waking from a deep swoon. In this state, the person had been unaware of their true condition, unable to free themselves from it. But now, they are returning to consciousness and action. The voice that shall awaken the dead has awakened him; his sinful trance has faded away, and the foul yet captivating dreams that once held him are gone. He came to himself.
This phrase might also be applied to one recovering from insanity. The prodigal son had acted as though he were mad, for sin is indeed a form of madness. In his folly, he had confused what was good with what was evil, dark with light. He had done to his soul what those in biblical times possessed by demons did to their bodies—wounded and hurt themselves.
The insane person does not recognize their madness, but as soon as they “come to themselves,” they painfully realize the state from which they are emerging. Returning to reason and sound judgment, the prodigal son came to himself. Another illustration of this phrase can be seen in ancient fables of enchantment, where a man, freed from a magician’s spell, “came to himself.” Classic tales, such as that of Circe—the enchantress who transformed men into swine—illustrate a degradation that mirrors the prodigal’s fall into a state of animal-like existence.
In this story, the prodigal son had lost all the human attributes of love, respect, and care for his own well-being, lowering himself to the level of the beasts. But as Ulysses overcame the enchantress to restore his men, so the prodigal son begins to regain his humanity, looking away from the pleasures of the flesh and starting a path more aligned with his true nature.
Awakening from the Swoon of Sin
There are individuals today who may still be in this state of swoon, unaware of their true spiritual condition. May the God of Heaven awaken them! Some may be morally insane, deceiving themselves into thinking they are fine. May the Divine Physician restore them, bringing them back to health. For those who have let their animalistic nature reign supreme, may the God who defeats the works of the devil set them free and grant them power to become children of God.
When the prodigal son came to himself, two things became clear to him: there was an abundance in his father’s house, and he himself was perishing. These are two spiritual truths that should impact all unsaved souls—these are no dreams or fantasies, but undeniable facts. The Father’s house contains an abundance of all good things, and the sinner is perishing without them. No other place offers divine grace or the possibility of redemption, for in God’s presence, mercy is limitless.
Equally true is the fact that the sinner without God is perishing. Without God, all that is good and worthwhile in life will be destroyed. The desolation that follows sin will haunt their spirit forever. If we could shut up unconverted souls to these two truths, how much more hopeful our gatherings would be! Yet, many reject the truth, imagining they may find mercy somewhere else or thinking they are not as lost as the Scripture reveals.
The Call to Salvation
My dear brothers and sisters, what can we do with those who willfully close their eyes to such overwhelming truths? Let us pray earnestly for them, asking God to open their hearts and bind them with the truth of His mercy—so that, led into His presence, they might soon find the liberty of the children of God!
I want to focus particularly on the first thought that motivated the prodigal to rise and return to his father—what compelled him to say, “I will arise and go to my father.” It was not merely the hunger that drove him, but the thought of the abundance in his father’s house. The abundance of bread—the sufficiency of mercy and grace—compelled him to return. And how many souls, many, many souls, have been led to seek God once they realize that there is an abundance of mercy with Him.
The Abundance of All Good Things in the Father’s House
First, let us consider the more-than-abundant supply of all good things in the Father’s house. If you are an awakened sinner today, everything you need is with God. There is an all-sufficient, superabundant supply of bread—“bread enough and to spare.” Let me prove this to you.
The Father’s Nature and Character
Consider the Father Himself. Whoever rightly understands the Father will immediately see that there can be no limitation to mercy or grace. What is God’s nature? The Scriptures answer, not merely that God is loving, but that God is love. Love is not just in God—it is who God is, and His love is infinite. You cannot measure God, nor can you grasp the full dimensions of His love.
The mercy of God endures forever, and He pardons iniquity. “You, Lord, are good and ready to forgive, and plenteous in mercy to all who call upon You.” His mercy is immeasurable, reaching above the heavens. God is good, merciful, and ever willing to forgive.
The Wisdom and Power of the Father
If you wonder whether your case is too difficult for God, remember that He who created you is able to heal you. He who made the ear can open it; He who made the eye can restore it. No trouble, no injury, no sin, no sickness, is beyond His ability. His wisdom and power are as infinite as His love, and all these attributes are at your service for your salvation.
The Son of God as the Bread of Life
Now consider the Son of God, who is the true Bread of Life for sinners. If you need a Savior, be encouraged that the Savior is God Himself—Jesus Christ, not just an angel or a man, but the very God of very God. His power is unlimited, and His ability to redeem is beyond question. He is able to take all the weight of your sins upon Himself, and He does so willingly.
Jesus’ incarnation is the ultimate act of condescension—God becoming a man, living among us, suffering, and dying on the cross for our sins. The merit of His death is infinite. It is not limited or small, for it is the sacrifice of the eternal Son of God. His blood is sufficient to cover the sins of the entire world, and if you are lost, it is not from a lack of divine grace or power, but because you reject it.
The Holy Spirit as a Source of New Life and Holiness
Lastly, consider the Holy Spirit, who is the agent of conversion. The Holy Spirit has been provided in the Covenant of Grace to give you new life and holiness. He is all-powerful and able to change any heart. Just as He transformed Saul of Tarsus, He can change you.
No evil is beyond His reach. No stubbornness, no sin, no fleshly desire can withstand the Holy Spirit’s power. If you perish, it is not because the Holy Spirit lacks power—it is because you refuse to believe.
The Greatness of Divine Mercy
Throughout the ages, God has sent prophets, apostles, and preachers to point you to Christ, the great Deliverer. Do you think God has made all this effort for a small, insufficient provision? Certainly not! His mercy is boundless, His love is endless, and His grace is more than sufficient.
If your sins are many, God’s mercy is greater still. There is “bread enough and to spare” in the Father’s house for all who will come. No one is too vile, too sinful, or too far gone for the grace of God to reach. There is mercy and forgiveness in abundance for all who will believe.
Conclusion
“Bread enough and to spare” is the motto of the Gospel. It speaks not only of God’s elect but also of His boundless benevolence. There is more than enough for all who come to Him, and there is always room for one more. Come, then, and feast on the abundance of His grace.
God’s Grace: Abundant and To Spare
There are adaptations for pleasure in the organizations of the lowest animals; see how the gnats dance in the summer’s sunbeam; hear the swallows as they scream with delight when on the wing. He who cares for birds and insects will surely care for men! God who hears the ravens when they cry, will He not hear the returning penitent? He gives these insects happiness—did He mean me to be wretched? Surely He who opens His hands, and supplies the need of every living thing will not refuse to open His hands, and supply my needs if I seek His face. Yet I must not make these lowest creatures to be the hired servants; whom shall I then select among men? I will put it thus—the very worst of sinners that have come to Christ have found Grace “enough and to spare”; and the very least of saints who dwell in the House of the Lord find Love “enough and to spare.”
The Testimony of the Guiltiest Sinners
Take then the guiltiest sinners, and see how bountifully the Lord treats them when they turn to Him. Did not some of you, who are yourselves unconverted, once know persons who were at least as bad, perhaps more outwardly immoral than yourselves? Well, they have been converted, though you have not, and when they were converted, what was their testimony? Did the blood of Christ avail to cleanse them? Oh, yes, and more than cleanse them—for it added to them beauty not their own. They were naked once—was Jesus able to clothe them? Was there a sufficient covering in His Righteousness? Ah, yes! They received not a bare apparel, but a royal raiment! You have seen others thus liberally treated—does not this induce you to come?
A Personal Testimony of Grace
Some of us need not confine our remarks to others, for we can speak personally of ourselves; we came to Jesus as full of sin as ever you can be, and felt ourselves beyond measure lost and ruined. But, oh, His tender Love! I could sooner stand here and weep than speak to you of it; my soul melts in gratitude when I think of the Infinite Mercy of God to me in that hour when I came seeking mercy at His hands. Oh, why will you not come? May His Holy Spirit sweetly draw you! I proved that there was bread enough, Mercy enough, forgiveness enough, and to spare. Come along, come along, poor guilty one! Come along, there is room enough for you!
The Least of Saints
Now, if the chief of sinners bears this witness, so do the most obscure of saints. If we could call forth from his seat a weak Believer in God, one who is almost unknown in the Church, one who sometimes questions whether he is a child of God, and he would be willing to be a hired servant as long as he might belong to God; and if I were to ask him, “How, after all, how has the Lord dealt with you?” What would be his reply? You have many afflictions, doubts and fears, but have you any complaints against your Lord? When you have waited upon Him for daily Grace, has He denied you? When you have been full of troubles, has He refused you comfort? When you have been plunged in distress, has He declined to deliver you? The Lord Himself asks, “Have I been a wilderness unto Israel?” Testify against the Lord, you His people, if you have anything against Him! Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, whoever there is in God’s service who has found Him a hard Taskmaster, let him speak! Among the angels before Jehovah’s Throne, and among men Redeemed on earth—if there is anyone who can say he has been dealt with unjustly, or treated with ungenerous churlishness, let him lift up his voice! But there is not one! Even the devil himself, when he spoke of God and of His servant Job, said, “Does Job serve God for nothing?” Of course he did not—God will not let His servants serve Him for nothing! He will pay them superabundant wages, and they shall all bear witness that at His table there is “bread enough and to spare.”
The Multitude of Those Who Have “Bread Enough and to Spare”
Now, if these still enjoy the bread of the Father’s House, these who were once great sinners, these who are now only very commonplace saints, surely, Sinner, it should encourage you to say, “I will arise and go to my Father,” for His hired servants “have bread enough and to spare.”
III. The Multitude of Grace
Notice in the third place, that the text dwells upon the multitude of those who have “bread enough and to spare.” The prodigal lays an emphasis upon those words, “How many hired servants of my father’s.” He was thinking of their great number, and counting them over, he thought of those who tended the cattle, of those who went out with the camels, of those who watched the sheep, those who minded the crops, and those who served in the house. He ran them over in his mind—his father was great in the land, and had many servants; yet he knew that they all had of the best food “enough and to spare.” “Why should I perish with hunger? I am only one at any rate. Though my hunger seems insatiable, it is but one belly that has to be filled, and lo, my father fills hundreds, thousands every day! Why should I perish with hunger?”
The Abundance of God’s Mercy
Now, O you awakened Sinner, you who feel your sin and misery this morning, think of the numbers upon whom God has bestowed His Grace already; think of the countless hosts in Heaven; if you were introduced there today, you would find it as easy to count the stars, or the sands of the sea, as to count the multitudes that are before the Throne even now! They have come from the east, and from the west, and they are sitting down with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob—and there is room enough for you! And beside those in Heaven, think of those on earth; blessed be God, His Elect on earth are to be counted by the millions, I believe, and the days are coming—brighter days than these—when there shall be multitudes upon multitudes brought to know the Savior, and to rejoice in Him! The Father’s Love is not for a few only, but for an exceedingly great company—a number that no man can number will be found in Heaven!
The Mercy of God for All
Now, a man can number a very great amount. Set to work your Newtons, your calculators—they can count great numbers, but God, and God alone, can count the multitude of His Redeemed. Now, Sinner, you are but one at any rate, great Sinner as you are, and the Mercy of God which embraces millions must have room enough in it for you! The sea which holds the whales and innumerable creeping things—do you say, “It will overflow its banks if I bathe in it”? The sun which floods the universe with light, can you say, “I should exhaust his beams if I should ask him to enlighten my darkness”? Say not so! If you come to yourself you will not tolerate such a thought, but you will remember with hope the richness of the Father’s Divine Grace, even though your own poverty stares you in the face.
The Urgency of Coming to Christ
Let us add a few words to close with—close grappling words to some of you to whom God has sent His message this morning, and whom He intends to save. O you who have been long hearers of the Gospel, and who know it well in theory, but have felt none of the Power of it in your hearts—let me now remind you where and what you are! You are perishing! As the Lord lives, there is but a step between you and death! But a step, no, but a breath between you and Hell! Sinner, if at this moment your heart should cease its beating, and there are a thousand causes that might produce that result before the clock ticks again—you would be in the flames of Divine Wrath! Can you bear to be in such peril? If you were hanging over a rock by a slender thread which must soon break, and if you would then fall headlong down a terrible precipice, you would not sleep, but be full of alarm. May you have sense enough, wit enough, Divine Grace enough, to be alarmed until you escape from the Wrath to come!
Perishing in the Sight of Plenty
Remember, however, that while you are perishing, you are perishing in sight of plenty! You are famishing where a table is abundantly spread! What is more, there are those whom you know now sitting at that table and feasting! What sad perversity for a man to persist in being starved in the midst of a banquet where others are being satisfied with good things!
The Invitation to Come to Christ
But I think I hear you say, “I fear I have no right to come to Jesus.” I will ask you this—have you any right to say that till you have been denied? Did you ever try to go to Christ? Has He ever rejected you? If then you have never received a denial, why do you wickedly imagine that He would deny you? Wickedly, I say, for it is an offense against the Christ who opened His heart upon the Cross to imagine that He could deny a penitent! Have you any right to say, “But I am not one of those for whom His Mercy is provided”? Who told you so? Have you climbed to Heaven and read the secret records of God’s Election? Has the Lord revealed a strange decree to you, and said, “Go and despair, I will have no pity on you”? If you say that God has so spoken, I do not believe you! In this sacred Book is recorded what God has said; here is the sure Word of Testimony, and in it I find it said of no humble seeker that God has shut him out from His Grace. Why have you a right to invent such a fiction in order to secure your own damnation?
The Promise of Acceptance in Christ
Instead, there is much in the Word of God and elsewhere to encourage you in coming to Christ; He has not yet repelled one sinner! That is good to begin with—it is not likely that He would, for since He died to save sinners, why should He reject them when they seek to be saved? You say, “I am afraid to come to Christ.” Is that wise? I have heard of a poor navigator who had been Converted to Christ, who had but little education, but who knew the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and when dying, very cheerfully and joyfully longed to depart. His wife said to him, “But, mon, ain’t you afeared to stand before the Judge?” “Woman,” said he, “Why should I be afeared of a Man as died for me?” Oh, why should you be afraid of Christ who died for sinners? The idea of being afraid of Him should be banished by the fact that He shed His blood for the guilty! You have much reason to believe from the very fact that He died, that He will receive you! Besides, you have His Word for it, for He says, “Him who comes to Me I will in no wise cast out”—for no reason, and in no way, and on no occasion, and under no presence, and for no motive! “I will not cast him out,” says the original. “Him that comes to Me I will in no wise cast out.”
The Goodness of God in Pardon
You say it is too good to be true that there can be Pardon for you—this is a foolish measuring of God’s corn with your bushel! Because it seems too good a thing for you to receive, do you fancy it is too good for God to bestow? Let the greatness of the Good News be one reason for believing that the news is true, for it is so like God—“Who is a Pardoning God like Thee? Or who has Grace so rich and free?” Because the Gospel assures us that He forgives great sins through a great Savior, it looks as if it were true since He is so great a God.
The Result of the Good News
What should be the result of all this with every sinner here at this time? I think this Good News should awaken those who have almost gone to sleep through despair. The sailors have been pumping the vessel, the leaks are gaining, she is going down; the captain is persuaded she must be a wreck. Depressed by such evil tidings, the men refuse to work, and since the boats all have holes in them, and they cannot make a raft, they sit down in despair. Presently the captain has better news for them. “She will float,” he says, “The wind is abating, the pumps are working well, the leak can yet be reached.” See how they work—with what cheery courage they toil on, because there is hope! Soul, there is hope! There is hope! THERE IS HOPE! To the harlot, to the thief, to the drunkard, there is hope! “There is no hope,” says Satan. Liar that you are, get back to your den—for YOU there is no hope! But for fallen man, though he is in the mire of sin up to his very neck; though he is at the gates of death—while he lives there is hope! There is hope for hopeless souls in the Savior!
Elevating the Sinner’s Thoughts
In addition to awakening us, this ought to elevate the sinner’s thoughts. Some years ago there was a crossing-sweeper in Dublin with his broom, at the corner, and in all probability his highest thoughts were to keep the crossing clean, and look for dropped coins. One day a lawyer put his hand upon his shoulder, and said to him, “My good fellow, do you know that you are heir to a fortune of £10,000 a year?” “Do you mean it?” said he. “I do,” he said. “I have just received the information, and I am sure you are the man.” The sweeper walked away, and he forgot his broom! Are you astonished? Why, who would not have forgotten a broom when suddenly made possessor of £10,000 a year? So I pray that some poor sinners who have been thinking of the pleasures of the world, when they hear that there is hope, and that there is Heaven to be had, will forget the deceitful pleasures of sin, and follow after higher and better things!
Purification of the Mind
Should it not also purify the mind? The prodigal, when he said, “I will arise and go to my father,” became, in a measure, reformed from that very moment. How, you ask? Why, he left the swine trough! More, he left the wine cup, and he left the harlots; he did not go with the harlot on his arm, and the wine cup in his hand, and say, “I will take these with me, and go to my father.” It could not be; these were all left, and though he had no goodness to bring, yet he did not try to keep his sins and come to Christ.
A Warning Against Misusing the Gospel
I shall close with this remark, because it will act as a sort of caveat, and be a fit word to season the wide invitations of the Free Gospel. Some of you, I fear, will make mischief even out of the Gospel, and will dare to take the Cross and use it for a gallows for your souls. If God is so merciful, you will go, therefore, and sin the more, and because Divine Grace is freely given, therefore you will continue in sin, that Grace may abound. If you do this, I would solemnly remind you I have no Grace to preach to such as you; “Your damnation is just”; it is the Word of Inspiration, and the only one I know that is applicable to such as you are!
The Invitation to Salvation
But every needy, guilty soul that desires a Savior is told today to believe in Jesus, that is, trust in the Substitution and Sacrifice of Christ. Trust Him to take your sin and blot it out; trust Him to take your soul and save it; trust Christ entirely, and you are forgiven this very moment! You are saved this very instant, and you may rejoice now in the fact that being Justified by Faith, you have peace with God through Jesus Christ our Lord! O come! Come! Come! Come and welcome! Come now to the Redeemer’s blood! Holy Spirit, compel them to come in, that the House of Mercy may be filled. Amen and Amen!
[THE reader, if a believer in Christ, is requested to unite with the preacher in praising the Lord for Grace abundantly given in connection with these sermons. This is the thousandth of the series of sermons which we have published consecutively week by week, and of which the circulation has continued to increase. These discourses have many of them been reprinted in the United States, and have also been translated into German, French, Swedish, Dutch, Italian, and Welsh. Some of them have also been issued in the Hungarian, Russian, Danish, Spanish Telugu, Malagasay, Maori, and Gaelic tongues. Of their effect, by the blessing of God’s Spirit, thousands in Heaven, and in all parts of the Earth, are joyful witnesses. If we did not praise God for such Mercy, the stones would cry out! 1871.]